Know Your 40K Terrain - The Basics

As a scenery builder, I strive to make terrain that looks awesome on the battlefield but is also playable.  In a new series, I will talk about what terrain specifically is and how it affects the game.

Now we've all seen different types of terrain on tables, stores, and tournaments.  But do you really know how it works and what it should be?  That's what this series is about.

Before we delve into the different types of terrain and what they do (yes, rocks and trees do things), lets start with the basics:  Setting up Terrain.

There are two ways terrain can be placed.  The first is through "narrative terrain".  Basically, the board is made to look as much like a real battlefield as possible.  You'll mostly see this at the tournaments.  When you arrive, the boards are already set up with terrain and usually can't be moved or re-arranged.  This is supposed to be a fair board that does not give either side an advantage over the terrain itself.  The other form of "narrative terrain" is where it may give a huge advantage/disadvantage to one side.  This would be your bunker assault boards, where one side starts in no-mans land while the other is hunkered down in trench systems and bunkers.

A Mechwarrior table from "Necromundicon".

The second (and most common) way is the "alternating terrain".  First, you have to determine the "Terrain Density Limit".  This means how many pieces can go into each 2' X 2' area of a game board by rolling a D3 for each section.  So for an 4' X 8' board, there will be a maximum of three pieces for one section which comes out to 24 pieces of terrain.  This also means that all of the terrain will fit into one quarter of the entire board if it were bunched together.  Any more and the battlefield will be too crowded.

From "Bell of Lost Souls".  Full article here: http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2011/06/40k-editorial-proper-terrain-setup.html

Now each piece of terrain is a different size, so that may present some problems.  Does a building equal a small piece of debris?  Not really.  So each "piece" of terrain should be a substantial element (building, forest, or ruin) or a cluster of up to three smaller pieces of terrain (such as battlefield debris).  The terrain should also be placed 3" away from other terrain.